COLD WARS, HOT WARS AND THE JAPANESE BREEDERS CHAMPIONSHIP

“All’s fair in love and war”

So they say, provided the game is played according to the Queensberry Rules. We’ve always said that the South African Breeders’ Championship is one of the tightest competitions in the thoroughbred world, and that’s because only six farms have aspired to the title in all of recorded history.

But the closest contest in the world right now, rests with the Japanese, and the intriguing thing is the three principal protagonists. The 31st December will hail the champion, and there is very little separating the top two, Shadai Farm of Teruya Yoshida, and his brother Katsumi’sNorthern Farm. Yes, there is a difference R34 million keeping them apart, but this is a bagatelle in the context of totals of the order of half a billion in each of their respective earnings. Earlier in the season, they were separated by several hundred million, but a late charge by Northern Farm sees the battle going right to the line, and amazingly, the third in the contest also happens to be a Yoshida family entity.

From a dim and distant past, Japanese breeding has almost singlehandedley been catapulted into the world of breeding superpowers by the Yoshidas and its anyone’s guess as to how long their monopoly on the country’s racing affairs can be maintained. The manifestation of a Darley stallion station in the Land of the Rising Sun by Sheikh Mohammed one poser for the future, but it’s our bet that the name Yoshida will stick like a barnacle to their leader boards for decades to come.